Posts Tagged ‘world’

It’s the night before Hogswatch, usually a time of joy on Discworld. A night when overexcited children are kept awake by the thoughts of what presents they may find inside their stockings, once they are allowed to stop pretending to be asleep.

But this year, all is not right with the holiday season!

There have been some worryingly suspicious goings-on involving a member of Ankh-Morpork’s Assassins’ Guild, and the town’s already bustling criminal underworld is abuzz with dodgy deeds. The beloved Hogfather – the jolly bearer of glee and pork-related gifts for children everywhere – has vanished.

Suddenly, the stability of the Discworld’s entire mythical system is under threat. For if the children stop believing in the Hogfather, the sun will not rise upon Discworld again!
The fate of this magical time rests in the hands of a very motley group: A band of wizards headed up by a mystical university president named Mustrum Ridcully; a loyal manservant who goes by the name of Albert; a level headed governess called Susan Sto Helit; and her grandfather, who happens to be Death.

It will take some very extreme measures: Plans must be made, trolls must be fought, fairies must be rescued, and Death must take up the reins at the helm of the Hogfather’s abandoned sleigh, as the Hogfather, and more importantly, the holiday, is to be saved.

Albert, previously known as Alberto Malich – one of the most powerful wizards of his time and founder of the Unseen University, tried to gain immortality by performing the Rite of AshkEnte backwards – he reasoned that a spell designed to bring Death to you, performed backwards, would keep him away from you. It worked, in a way, since Malich was sent to Death’s Domain, where Time does not flow the same as it does on the Discworld. Death decided to spare Albert and employs him now as his manservant. As Death’s trusted servant, he has to ensure Death gets away with the most difficult job on Hogswatch night, otherwise the sun may never shine tomorrow.

DEATHThe defeater of Empires, the Swallower of Oceans, the Thief of Years, the Ultimate Reality, the Harvester of Mankind, the Assassin against Whom No Lock Will Hold, the only friend of the Poor and the best doctor for the mortally wounded.

His face is frozen into a calcareous grin. His voice is felt rather than heard. He is seen only by cats, professional practitioners of magic and those who are about to die, or are already dead.
Despite rumour, he is not cruel. He is just terribly, terribly good at his job. It is said that he doesn’t get angry, because anger is an emotion and for emotions you need glands: however he does seem to be capable of a piece of intellectual disapproval, which has a very similar effect. He is a traditionalist who prides himself on his personal service, and, despite the absence of glands, can become depressed when this is not appreciated.

MUSTRUM RIDCULLY
Archchancellor of the Unseen University

Mustrum Ridcully, also known as Ridcully the Brown, became a Seventh Level wizard at the incredibly young age of 27 (there are eight levels of wizardry on the Discworld). He then quit the University to look after his family’s estates in the countryside, and it was to be another 40 years before he would return to the Unseen University and become its Archchancellor. He holds the view that if someone is still trying to explain something to him after about 2 minutes, it must be worth listening to, and if they give up earlier, it was not worth bothering him with in the first place.MR.TEATIME
The Assassin’s Assassin

Mr Teatime is a student at the Assasins Guild, he prefers his surname to be pronounced TEH-AH-TIM-EH
Jonathon Teatime was taken into the Guild as a child because the administration took pity on him after he lost both his parents at an early age, they died in a tragic accident that occurred whilst leaning over his playpen. In any other case this might have been considered prescient. He is boyishly handsome, with blonde curly hair and a ready smile, but these features are hampered by his eyes; one of which is black glass, and the other is off-white, with a tiny, pinhole-sized pupil. Mr Teatime is, undoubtedly, a genius, but also sociopathic to an astonishing degree. His main problem seems to be that he sees things differently from other people, in that he sees other people as things.

SUSAN STO HELIT
Daughter of Mort and Ysabelle and Granddaughter of DEATH.

A self possessed and somewhat chilly woman, Susan has surprisingly inherited a few traits from her Grandfather, Death. Possessing a real knack for crowbars and monsters, she is attractive in a skinny way. While still young, she has an indefinable air of age about her, with her pure white hair that features a black streak down the middle. In Hogfather she works as a governess – a very effective one, due primarily to her rather special upbringing (her parents, although very caring, avoided the whole ‘magical childhood fantasy’ business in an ultimately useless effort to shield her from the influence of her Grandfather, Death). She can walk through walls when she really has to, and uses a tone of voice that somehow reaches inside of people and operates all the right switches – one of the many skills she’s going to need if she’s to have a chance of successfully saving the Hogfather and all things Hogswatch.MR. SIDENEY
Student Wizard

Down-on-his luck wizard Sideney attended Gammer Wimblestone’s Dame School, where he was mercilessly bullied for having ringlets. Having failed at every spell he has ever performed, Sideney now owes Mustrum Ridcully a large amount of money, although the amount he has to pay back is unclear. Faced with chronic debt, Sideney joins Teatime’s merry band of assassins in order to pay off his debts as quickly as he can.

LORD DOWNEY
Head of the Assassins Guild

The current head of the Assassins’ Guild, Lord Downey is a kindly looking, distinguished older gentleman with white hair, and seemingly unflappable demeanor. However, evidence suggests that he is not quite as intelligent, or as in control as he appears – he was a bully at school, for instance. Allegedly, Lord Downey’s preferred method of inhumation is poisoning (poisonous peppermints are believed to be his specialty), although no deaths have ever been attributed to him. But it is suggested that this is probably due to the fact that he is very good at his job.

‘Welcome to the Discworld.
It started out as a parody of all the fantasy that was around in the big boom of the early 1980s, then turned into a satire on just about everything, and even I don’t know what it is now. I do know that in that time there has been at least four people promoted as “new Terry Pratchetts” so for all I know I may not even still be me..’~ Terry Pratchett – Author

“Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom.” – Death

“ Do you have many friends, Mr Sydeney? I don’t have many… Don’t seem to have the knack… Then again, I don’t seem to have any enemies either.” – Teatime

“You were the kind of kid who couldn’t see the difference between throwing rocks at a cat and setting it on fire.” – Susan

“The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.” – Terry Pratchett

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